Beach House will release Become, a new five-song EP, as a Record Store Day crystal-clear vinyl exclusive on Saturday, April 22nd, 2023.
“The Become EP is a collection of 5 songs from the Once Twice Melody sessions. We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own. To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been. We hope you enjoy these tunes,” Alex and Victoria/Beach House.
Become, which features the songs “American Daughter,” “Devil’s Pool,” “Holiday House,” “Black Magic” and the title track, was produced by Beach House, with mixing by Alan Moulder (track 1), Trevor Spencer (tracks 2, 3, 5), and Caesar Edmunds (track 4), and mastering by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound.
Once Twice Melody earned “Best Albums of 2022” placement from the likes of The New Yorker, Variety, The Ringer, Under the Radar, Brooklyn Vegan, The AV Club, Stereogum, PAPER, PASTE, All Music, PopMatters, Pitchfork “Readers Poll,” Gorilla vs. Bear, Treble, Magnet, No Ripcord, Uncut, Uproxx “Critics Poll,” and more.
Once Twice Melody also peaked at #1 on Billboard’s Albums Sales Chart, the band’s first-ever record to do so. It also debuted at #1 on the Top Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Tastemaker Albums, and Top Current Album Sales charts (see Billboard’s March 1st news story). The album also spent six weeks at #1 on the NACC 200 College Charts. Beach House also performed Once Twice Melody standout “Superstar” on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
In 2022, Beach House’s ”Space Song,” the duo’s track from their 2015 album Depression Cherry, became the group’s first certified Platinum single.
What people are saying about Beach House: “Once Twice Melody is one of the best records of the year and a testament to the virtue of constancy” (“The Best Music of 2022”) - The New Yorker
“Once Twice Melody is their most definitive and probably best work — and even more remarkably in these ADD-addled times, they’ve done it with a sprawling, 18-song album that is around 80 minutes long (#5/”The Best Albums of 2022, Jem Aswad”) - Variety
“Melody is mesmerizing, and it raises exciting possibilities of how Beach House’s sound could evolve in the next decade-plus (#18/”The 33 Best Albums of 2022”) - The Ringer
“Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally doled out four perfectly sweeping segments for their eighth full-length; taken together, they represent the pinnacle of the band’s craft. There are far too many highlights to single just one or two out: Once Twice Melody is an album that keeps on giving, immersive and rewarding, a marvel to get lost in.” (#23/”The 50 Best Albums of 2022”) - Stereogum
“From the majestic opening notes of the title track to the last electronic flourish of closer “Modern Love Stories,” Once Twice Melody is the culmination of everything Beach House do best.” (#45/”The 50 Best Albums of 2022”) - PASTE
Beach House Become EP Artwork
Tracklisting: 1. American Daughter 2. Devil’s Pool 3. Holiday House 4. Black Magic 5. Become
On November 23rd, Sub Pop gets into the Christmas spirit / fires the latest salvo in the war on Christmas by releasing Green River’s “Away in a Manger” and the U-Men’s “Blue Christmas” as a split 7” single for Record Store Day’s Black Friday. The exclusive single is limited to 2,000 copies, will be pressed on red/green vinyl, and features front and back cover art from cartoonist Peter Bagge.
Green River’s sick & unholy rendition of the classic Christmas tune “Away in a Manger,” was originally released on the C/Z Records compilation entitled Another Pyrrhic Victory: The Only Compilation of Dead Seattle God Bands.
U-Men’s slurring, lurching, belly crawling, pisstake on “Blue Christmas” was originally available on the Christmas ‘84 cassette compilation.
Two ugly orphans, brought together to live as one grinning, writhing glump of career-capping, Christmas gak! Happy birthday baby Jesus!
Green River / U-Men Tracklisting:
A. Green River “Away in a Manger” B. U-Men “Blue Christmas”
Herewith, details on Sub Pop’s elaborate plans to celebrate the TRUE most wonderful time of the year: Record Store Day 2018.
As the main course, we’re putting out Thomas Andrew Doyle’s (aka TAD) limited-edition Incineration Ceremony LP. And! Equally delightful, though more challenging to flip on eBay, a bunch of our artists are performing (King Tuff and Yuno), or doing DJ sets (Steve Turner of Mudhoney, John Reis & Gar Wood of Hot Snakes, and Colleen Green) in actual record stores! And all of this will be available or happen on Saturday, April 21st at participating retailers.
Please find info on Thomas Andrew Doyle and a schedule of performances and DJ sets below.
Thomas Andrew Doyle’s / Incineration Ceremony LP:
Incineration Ceremony is the new work by Thomas Andrew Doyle (TAD, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Hog Molly) and is a return to roots of sorts. After spending his formative years in music playing in jazz clubs while attending school studying classical and jazz music at Boise State University, Doyle comes forth with a symphonic take on what is going on in his head. Spawned from the dark and dreary recesses of Doyle’s psyche comes an immense sound of textures, rhythms and material suitable for film and stand-alone listening, disquieting all who are within earshot. People who are familiar with his music should expect the unexpected. Doyle’s entry into the world of symphonic composition is no novice beginner’s attempt. Incineration Ceremony is a musical journeyman’s expression that is genuine, heartfelt, honest, uncompromising, and authoritative.
Incineration Ceremony is limited to 1,500 copies worldwide, and comes housed in a single-LP jacket with custom dust sleeve and grey/black vinyl.
Incineration Ceremony Tracklist:
1. Silent Incineration
2. Bio-Illogical Functions
3. Meditations in Null
4. Desire
5. Nurtured in Grief
6. The Only Thing You Truly Own Is Nothing
7. Prognati ignis ignis
8. Lost in Abyssmal Waters*
9. Born into Sorrow*
10. Asleep in Arrythmia*
*Bonus tracks included as digital download
DJ Sets and In-Store Performances (from early to later):
Steve Turner (Mudhoney) / Jackpot Records DJ set (Portland, 10 am): 3574 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR 97214
Colleen Green / Amoeba DJ set (Hollywood, noon): 6400 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
John Reis (of Hot Snakes) / Vinyl Junkies DJ set (San Diego, 3pm): 2235 Fern St, San Diego, CA 92104
King Tuff/ Fingerprints In-store performance (Long Beach, 6pm): 420 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90802.
Gar Wood (of Hot Snakes + Beehive & the Barracudas) w/ Tracy Wooley (Beehive & the Barracudas) / Vinyl Junkies DJ set (San Diego, California, 7pm): 2235 Fern St, San Diego, CA 92104
About Record Store Day
Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica (read more here).
Celebrating Record Store Day 2016 at Sub Pop’s Airport Store
For the last few months, I have been one of the few Sub Pop corporate associates lucky enough to open the airport store at 6 A.M. For someone who has considered himself a night owl for his entire life, I’m amazed to see how many fully-alert and seemingly-functional human beings are roaming the airport at this hour. They are already munching on breakfast sandwiches, searching for electrical outlets to charge their phones, and staring at the black early morning sky through a 60-by-350-foot glass wall when I get to work.
They are also ready to exercise their purchasing power, which brings us to 6 A.M., this Saturday, April 16th, in the year of our lord Grunge, where I will have the special sleep-deprived pleasure of opening our airport shop for Record Store Day (RSD). While other record stores tout their once-a-year early/extended hours, I can’t find any store that will beat our standard 6 A.M. opening time, making us still the earliest-opening record store in the galaxy. (The closest I found on the west coast was the Everyday Music location in Beaverton, OR, which promises to open at 7 A.M. this year for Record Store Day.)
So, if you were worried about traveling through the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Record Store Day, and missing out on all the exclusive buying opportunities, fear not! At press time, we are still unpacking boxes and awaiting shipments, but we will definitely have some choice RSD titles for you to take home and/or on vacation with you this Saturday. I think all of these will fit nicely in your carry on bag.
As always, we’ll have copies of the 2016 Sub Pop RSD titles. If you didn’t know, Sub Pop will release two different split singles this year: There’s one by Low and S. Carey (a.k.a. Sean Carey, drummer for Bon Iver and solo recording artist on Jagjaguwar) where they take on unfinished versions of each other’s songs, resulting in some jammy musical alchemy. And our other split single has METZ and Mission of Burma(!!!) covering each other’s songs. You can read more about these right over here.
But that’s not all! This year we also decided to stock some other non-Sub Pop RSD exclusives in the store. Here are a few that I recommend checking out:
- METZ and Swami John Reis “Let it Rust” / “Caught Up”: With METZ, the singles just keep on comin’. After passing through San Diego whist on tour, they hooked up with John Reis (of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and Rocket From the Crypt fame) and collaborated on two new songs for this gloriously noisy 7”.
- Green River 1984 Demos: These are the earliest recordings by the world’s first ever Grunge band. Jack Endino recently got a hold of the reel and was able to mix it; he says the band sounds “like a scrappy glam punk version of Mudhoney.”
- The Shaggs “Sweet Maria”/ “The Missouri Waltz”: From our good friends at Light in the Attic (can we ever get enough of them?) this 7” contains the previously unreleased song “Sweet Maria,” along with their (what bounds to be) idiosyncratic cover of the state song of Missouri.
- Ravi ShankarIn Hollywood, 1971: This is a never before released recording of a private concert Ravi Shankar had in his very own home, for a small group of guests. Word has it that George Harrison was in attendance, and that this unique performance helped to inspire the largest-ever benefit shows at the Concert for Bangladesh, later that year.
- The Thermals “Hey You” / “White Rabbit”: Former Sub Pop band The Thermalsjust released a new LP this year, We Disappear, over on Saddle Creek Records. This 7” contains a song from that album, along with a sure-to-be-righteous cover of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.”
- Various ArtistsDoused in Mud, Soaked in Bleach: A song-for-song tribute to Nirvana’s Bleach, featuring contributions from Beach Slang, Circa Survive, The Fall of Troy, and more.
- Man ManSix Demon Bag: This year marks the 10th anniversary of Man Man’s second album, Six Demon Bag. The band, whose frontman Ryan Kattner is also in Sub Pop’s own Mister Heavenly, originally released this record as a double 10”, and it is now available as a 12” LP for the first time ever.
- Xiu Xiu Plays the Music of Twin Peaks: The title says it all. Eerie yet beautiful music, from the greatest T.V. show to ever take place in Washington state, that will dance creepily into the red room of your consciousness.
- And many more titles to choose from!
I’d also be remiss not to mention that today, the day before Record Store Day, Sub Pop has just released the excellent Sam Beam and Jesca Hoop collaboration, Love Letter for Fire, and the airport store still has some smoke-colored vinyl Loser Editions.
On the subject of Loser Editions, make your RSD more artful with these limited color LPs still available at the airport store:
Doldrums- The Air Conditioned Nightmare (clear vinyl)
Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion (white swirl vinyl - only one left in the store!)
Mass Gothic - Mass Gothic (orange vinyl)
Mike & the Melvins - Three Men and a Baby (custom dust sleeve and white vinyl - sold out everywhere else!)
So Pitted - Neo (white vinyl)
And we can’t forget colored vinyl options from Hardly Art. We still have GazebosDie Alone (clear with yellow), Grave Babies Holographic Violence (blue and purple), Shannon and the ClamsGone by the Dawn (green and white) and Tacocat’s brand new release, Lost Time (black and blue), available on LP.
Now, if you’ve made it this far, you might be thinking, “Hey, I’m not flying through Sea Tac airport tomorrow, and it’s totally impractical for me to buy a plane ticket on such short notice.” Don’t worry. If you visit the Sub Pop Airport Store anytime this spring, every day can be your own personal Record Store Day (while supplies last, a.k.a, until we sell-out of this stuff).
On Saturday, April 16th, 2016, aka Record Store Day, Sub Pop will release two very limited split singles: Low and S. Carey’s “Not A Word” / “ I Won’t Let You Fall” 10” and METZ and Mission of Burma’s “Good, Not Great” / “Get Off” 7”. Check ‘em out:
METZ and Mission of Burma “Good, Not Great” / “Get Off” 7” single: Toronto noise-rock behemoths METZ team up with Boston post-punk legends Mission of Burma on this split single for Record Store Day 2016. METZ contribute a cover of “Good, Not Great,” a track from Mission of Burma’s 2006 album The Obliterati, while Mission of Burma cover METZ’s 2012 anthem, “Get Off.” This single is a Record Store Day 2016 exclusive, and it is limited to 4,000 copies worldwide. All copies are on starburst purple and green vinyl.
Tracklisting: 1. Good, Not Great (METZ) 2. Get Off (Mission of Burma)
Low / S. Carey “Not A Word” / “I Won’t Let You Fall” 10” single: This 10” single on special translucent white vinyl features two 7-minute collaborations between Duluth group Low and Wisconsin’s S. Carey, aka Sean Carey, best known as the drummer and supporting vocalist for Bon Iver. The idea for this release came from producer BJ Burton. “Not a Word” was an unfinished Low track that BJ worked with S. Carey to complete, while “I Won’t Let You Fall” was an unfinished S. Carey song that BJ worked with Low to complete. This unique partnership between Low, S. Carey and BJ Burton (and Sub Pop and Jagjaguwar) is exclusive to Record Store Day 2016, and it is limited to 4,000 copies worldwide.
Tracklisting: 2. I Won’t Let You Fall (S. Carey) 1. Not a Word (Low)
More About Record Store Day: Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 independently owned record stores in the US and thousands of similar stores internationally. The first Record Store Day took place on April 19, 2008. Today there are Record Store Day participating stores on every continent except Antarctica.
This is a day for the people who make up the world of the record store—the staff, the customers, and the artists—to come together and celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned stores play in their communities. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, DJs spinning records, and on and on. In 2008 a small list of titles was released on Record Store Day and that list has grown to include artists and labels both large and small, in every genre and price point. In 2015, 60% of the Record Store Day Official Release List came from independent labels and distributors. The list continues to include a wide range of artists, covering the diverse taste of record stores and their customers. http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home
We here at Sub Pop Records love few things more than Record Store Day. Tomorrow, Saturday, April 18th, 2015
aka Record Store Day, we will release two very limited (and
potentially, for you) anticipated efforts: The self-titled LP from the
Alan Bishop-led Koes Barat and a heart-shaped single from Father John
Misty.
Father John Misty’s “I Loved You, Honeybee” 7” Single:
Father John Misty presents a lovely, alternate version of the title track of his latest album, I Love You, Honeybear,
along with a new, exclusive B-side, truthfully-entitled “I’ve Never
Been a Woman,” on a red-colored, heart-shaped 7” in a 10” sleeve. This
release is exclusive to Record Store Day, and it is limited to 5,700
copies worldwide. You can check out “I Loved You, Honeybee” here.
Koes Barat Koes Barat LP:
In 2010, Sun City Girls legend Alan Bishop asserted his fandom of
Indonesian ‘60s/’70s pop legends Koes Bersaudara (aka Koes Plus) with
two archival releases on his and Hisham Mayet’s Sublime Frequencies
label. But that wasn’t enough. Feeling an overwhelming urge to interpret
Koes tunes, Bishop recorded Koes Barat in less than a week of
sessions with some of his favorite musicians and producer Randall Dunn
(Sunn O))), Marisa Nadler). The result is the most immediate, fun collection that the prolific Bishop has ever led. This album is a Record Store Day exclusive, limited to 3,800 worldwide.
On a related note, Dangerous Minds ran a feature on Koes Barat + Koes Plus and call the album “FUCKING WONDERFUL.” We couldn’t agree more (see April 14th premiere)!
Father John Misty “I Loved You, Honeybee” 7” (includes download code) Tracklisting:
A. “I Loved You, Honeybee”
B. “I’ve Never Been a Woman”
Koes Barat Koes Barat LP (includes download code) Tracklisting:
1. Kelelewar
2. Kisah Sedih di Hari Minggu
3. Pent Juri Hati
4. Mister Time
5. Hidup Yang Sepi
6. And to the so-called “The Guilties”
7. Tjintamu Telah Berlalu
8. Poor Clown
9. Land of Evergreen
10. Rahasia Hatiku
11. Tiba Tiba Ku Menangis
More About Record Store Day:
This is a day for the people who make up the world of the record
store—the staff, the customers, and the artists—to come together and
celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role
these independently owned stores play in their communities. Special
vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made
exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and
in various countries across the globe make special appearances and
performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body
painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records
and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at
Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day
is now celebrated the third Saturday every April. http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home
